Intel Core i7-7700K Compared Against i7-6700K – Benchmarks Inside!

The first proper benchmarks and performance results of the new flagship Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake CPU against the current i7-6700K Skylake CPU has been posted by the folks over at Tom’s Hardware.

Intel Core i7-7700K vs Core i7-6700K Compared Against Each Other

The Core i7-7700K is the best processor in the Kaby Lake lineup. It is based on the already existing 14nm process node abut has seen improvements due to a better manufacturing process. This is termed as the optimized 14 nm+ (Plus.) Because of this, better performance can be expected out of the processor.

Kaby Lake is mostly based on the SKylake architecture. The performance gain is solely based on the clock speed bump. This is why the faster Kaby Lake chip has been compared to Intel’s current fastest chip.

Intel Coore i7-7700K – The Fastest Core i7 Processor

The Intel Core i7-7700K processor is the fastest Core i7 chip in the Kaby Lake lineup. This chip features a quad core, hyper-threaded design. The chip is based on the latest 14nm Plus process node which delivers improved efficiency and performance on the existing 14nm FinFET technology. The clock speeds are rated 4.2 GHz base and 4.5 GHz boost. The processor packs 8 MB of L3 cache and has a TDP of 91W. The Core i7-7700K CPU will retail at $349 US.

Games tested include Ashes of the Singularity, F1 2015, Talos Principle and Metro Last Light Redux. All games see increased FPS on the Kaby Lake chip but those aren’t big enough to validate an upgrade to Kaby Lake from Skylake based platforms

The i7-7700K Is A Hot Chip With Almost The Same Efficiency As A Skylake Processor

Benchmarks have already revealed that the Core i7-7700 performs 7% better than the 6700K. Moreover, these benchmarks also revealed that the 7700K is quite hot as well, with temperatures hovering around 54C while the 6700K was near 34C on average. Moreover, in overclocked tests, the Core i7-7700K had an average temperature of 61C compared to 48C on the 6700K.

The New Core i7-7700K might not seem like something worth upgrading for, however, some enthusiasts state that with better software support; better results can be expected. The AMD Zen platform is also arriving soon and is looking quite competitive from the talks. AMD is holding a special Zen event in December prior to their release in Q1 2017. Whether Kaby Lake is good enough to tackle AMD’s enthusiast-aimed Summit Ridge line remains to be seen.